• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제38권8호
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• pp.697-732
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• 2006

In this paper, a historical review of the developments in the safety of LWR power plants is presented. The paper reviews the developments prior to the TMI-2 accident, i.e. the concept of the defense in depth, the design basis, the large LOCA technical controversies and the LWR safety research programs. The TMI-2 accident, which became a turning point in the history of the development of nuclear power is described briefly. The Chernobyl accident, which terrified the world and almost completely curtailed the development of nuclear power is also described briefly. The great international effort of research in the LWR design-base and severe accidents, which was, respectively, conducted prior to and following the TMI-2 and Chernobyl accidents is described next. We conclude that with the knowledge gained and the improvements in plant organisation/management and in the training of the staff at the presently-installed nuclear power stations, the LWR plants have achieved very high standards of safety and performance. The Generation 3+LWR power plants, next to be installed, may claim to have reached the goal of assuring the safety of the public to a very large extent. This review is based on the historical developments in LWR safety that occurred primarily in USA, however, they are valid for the rest of the Western World. This review can not do justice to the many fine contributions that have been made over the last fifty years to the cause of LWR safety. We apologize if we have not mentioned them. We also apologize for not providing references to many of the fine investigations, which have contributed towards LWR safety earning the conclusions that we describe just above.

• 디지털산업정보학회논문지
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.61-68
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• 2020

Nuclear power plants have a lower cost of power generation, and they are more eco-friendly than other power generation plants. Also, we need to prepare nuclear plant accidents because of their severe damage. In the event of a safety accident, such as a radiation leak, by applying a wireless sensor network to a nuclear power plant, many sensor nodes can be used to monitor radiation and transmit information to an external base station to appropriately respond to the accident. However, applying a wireless sensor network to nuclear power plants requires routing protocols that consider the sensor network size and bypass obstacles such as plant buildings. In general, the hierarchical-based routing protocols are efficient in energy consumption. In this study, we look into the problems that may occur if hierarchical-based routing protocols are applied to nuclear power plants and propose improved routing protocols to solve these problems. Simulation results show that the proposed routing protocol is more effective in energy consumption than the existing LEACH protocol.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권7호
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• pp.2670-2677
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• 2023

In the nuclear safety studies, a new trend refers to the evaluation of uncertainties as a mandatory component of best-estimate safety analysis which is a modern and technically consistent approach being known as BEPU (Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty). The major objectives of this study consist in performing a study of uncertainties/sensitivities of the major analysis results for a generic CANDU 6 Nuclear Power Plant during Station Blackout (SBO) progression to understand and characterize the sources of uncertainties and their effects on the key figure-of-merits (FOMs) predictions in severe accidents (SA). The FOMs of interest are hydrogen mass generation and event timings such as the first fuel channel failure time, beginning of the core disassembly time, core collapse time and calandria vessel failure time. The outcomes of the study, will allow an improvement of capabilities and expertise to perform uncertainty and sensitivity analysis with severe accident codes for CANDU 6 Nuclear Power Plant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.426-433
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• 2017

This paper describes the development process, the innovative techniques used and insights gained from the latest integrated, full scope, multistate Level 2 PSA analysis conducted at the Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant (KKL), Switzerland. KKL is a modern single-unit General Electric Boiling Water Reactor (BWR/6) with Mark III Containment, and a power output of $3600MW_{th}/1200MW_e$, the highest among the five operating reactors in Switzerland. A Level 2 Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) analyses accident phenomena in nuclear power plants, identifies ways in which radioactive releases from plants can occur and estimates release pathways, magnitude and frequency. This paper attempts to give an overview of the advanced modeling techniques that have been developed and implemented for the recent KKL Level 2 PSA update, with the aim of systematizing the analysis and modeling processes, as well as complying with the relatively prescriptive Swiss requirements for PSA. The analysis provides significant insights into the absolute and relative importances of risk contributors and accident prevention and mitigation measures. Thanks to several newly developed techniques and an integrated approach, the KKL Level 2 PSA report exhibits a high degree of reviewability and maintainability, and transparently highlights the most important risk contributors to Large Early Release Frequency (LERF) with respect to initiating events, components, operator actions or seismic component failure probabilities (fragilities).

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.1-14
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• 2017

The Fukushima nuclear accident caused by an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011 has seriously impacted the environment surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. While all the residents near the plant were evacuated from the area deemed uninhabitable after the accident, residents of the neighboring area outside of the evacuation zone still seem to live in fear of invisible radiation. To understand Fukushima residents' thinking about the environmental risks that accompany a nuclear disaster, we utilize a poll of the residents of Fukushima conducted in 2013. Based on the survey data, we reveal factors that seem to strongly affect their knowledge and concerns about nuclear power plants. The results of the multivariate analysis show the importance of the following two factors: (1) confidence in mass media, and (2) trust in institutions in charge of administering the accident, especially the central government, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, and Tokyo Electric Power Company. We conclude that the more people trust mass media and particular institutions, the more likely it is that they are have an elevated sense of anxiety and fear of the presence of nuclear plants.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권2호
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• pp.532-548
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• 2021

Nuclear power plants contain several monitoring systems that can identify the in-vessel phenomena of a severe accident (SA). Though a lot of analysis and research is carried out on SA, right from the development of the nuclear industry, not all the possible circumstances are taken into consideration. Therefore, to improve the efficacy of the safety of nuclear power plants, additional analytical studies are needed that can directly monitor severe accident phenomena. This paper presents an interacting multiple model (IMM) based fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) approach for the identification of in-vessel phenomena to provide the accident propagation information using reactor vessel (RV) out-wall temperature distribution during severe accidents in a nuclear power plant. The estimation of wall temperature is treated as a state estimation problem where the time-varying wall temperature is estimated using IMM employing three multiple models for temperature evolution. From the estimated RV out-wall temperature and rate of temperature, the in-vessel phenomena are identified such as core meltdown, corium relocation, reactor vessel damage, reflooding, etc. We tested the proposed method with five different types of SA scenarios and the results show that the proposed method has estimated the outer wall temperature with good accuracy.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권1호
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• pp.162-176
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• 2022

In Lead-based reactor (LBR) severe accident, the meltdown and migration inside the reactor core will lead to fuel fragment concentration, which may further cause re-criticality and even core disintegration. Accurately predicting the migration and solidification behavior of melt in LBR severe accidents is of prime importance for safety analysis of LBR. In this study, the Moving Particle Semi-implicit (MPS) method is validated and used to simulate the migration and solidification behavior. Two main surface tension models are validated and compared. Meanwhile, the MPS method is validated by the L-plate solidification test. Based on the improved MPS method, the migration and solidification behavior of melt in LBR severe accident was studied furthermore. In the Pb-Bi coolant, the melt flows upward due to density difference. The migration and solidification behavior are greatly affected by the surface tension and viscous resistance varying with enthalpy. The whole movement process can be divided into three stages depending on the change in velocity. The heat transfer of core melt is determined jointly by two heat transfer modes: flow heat transfer and solid conductivity. Generally, the research results indicate that the MPS method has unique advantage in studying the migration and solidification behavior in LBR severe accident.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.84-87
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• 2001

중대사고관리는 원전의 노심손상사고를 예방하거나 완화시키기 위하여 기존의 가용자원이나 시스템, 운전의 행위를 사용하는 것을 말한다. 제어실이나 기술지원반을 위하여 중대사고관리를 위하여 개발된 TRAIN(Training pRogram for Accident Management Program In Nuclear Power Plant)의 초기문자로 명명된 시스템을 본 논문에 소개하였다. TRAIN은 중대사고현상 KB(Knowledge Base)와 사고시나리오 KB, 제어도와 함께 사고관리 절차도 그리고 필요정보로 구성되어있으며 제어실이나 기술지원반에게 중대사고의 현상지식을 취득하게 하고, 발전소의 취약특성을 파악하게 하며, 상당한 스트레스하에서 주어진 문제를 해결하게 하는데 본 연구의 결과는 기여할 것이다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제36권6호
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• pp.497-511
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• 2004

A PSV (pressurizer safety valve) popping test carried out in the early phases of a refueling outage may trigger a test-induced LOCA(loss of coolant accident) if a PSV fails to fully close and is stuck in a partially open position. According to a KSNP (Korea standard nuclear power plant) low power and shutdown PSA (probabilistic safety assessment), the failure of a high pressure safety injection (HPSI) accompanied by the failure of a PSV to fully close was identified as a dominant accident sequence with a significant impact on low power and shutdown risks (LPSR). In this study, we aim to investigate and verify a new means for mitigating this type of accident using a thermal-hydraulic analysis. In particular, we explore the applicability of an aggressive cool-down combined with operator actions. The results of the various sensitivity studies performed there will help reduce LPSR and improve Refueling outage safety.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제46권2호
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• pp.66-79
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• 2021

Background: The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is specified in the Disaster Counter-measures Basic Act as a designated public corporation for dealing with nuclear disasters. Materials and Methods: The Nuclear Emergency Assistance and Training Center (NEAT) was established in 2002 as the activity base providing technical assistance to both national and local governments during nuclear emergencies. The NEAT has a robust structure and utilities and special installations, and it organizes training and exercises. Results and Discussion: Due to an offshore earthquake that caused a devastating tsunami in March 2011, a nuclear accident occurred at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The NEAT responded by conducting off-site environmental radiation monitoring and contamination screening, dispatching special vehicles, offering telephone consultations, and calculating the dispersion of radioactive materials. An examination of the emergency response activities revealed that the organization was prepared for these types of disasters and was able to plan long-term response. Conclusion: As a designated public corporation, the JAEA technically supports the national government, the Fukushima prefectural government, and the Ibaraki prefectural government, all of which responded to the off-site emergencies resulting from the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident